Cinder & Ella

by Kelly Oram

  Juliette rolled her eyes but grinned so big she looked like she might burst. “Just open it!”

  Her excitement was contagious, and I tore into the envelope as fast as my damaged fingers would let me. I nearly screamed with excitement when I saw what was waiting for me. As it was, I squealed a little, causing several other restaurant patrons to frown at our table. I was holding tickets to this year’s FantasyCon in my hands. I seriously couldn’t believe it.

  “Are you kidding? I know this makes me a huge dork, but I have wanted to go to this every year since I was, like, twelve! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I finally get to go! Thank you! I love it!”

  The convention runs for five days, but the best day was always the last day—Sunday. I had, in my hands, five Sunday passes.

  The day after tomorrow I would get to spend all day immersed in the worlds of my favorite books and movies. I’d get to meet a ton of my favorite authors and actors, get sequels to books that still haven’t come out yet, hear guest lectures, and get sneak peeks at a couple of upcoming movies. There was even a rumor that they were going to play ten whole minutes of The Druid Prince!

  “Those aren’t just FantasyCon tickets,” Juliette said. “We got you seats for The Druid Prince discussion panel. I looked it up. The writer of the books and the director, producer, writer, and cast of the movie are all going to be there! They’re having a private meet-and-greet for all panel attendees, so you’re going to get to meet your BFF Brian Oliver! Can you believe it?”

  Juliette was squealing now, enough that Dad told her to take a breath. I myself was in shock. As soon as my brain started functioning again, I realized just how many tickets I had. “You got me five tickets? Do you know how much these must have cost?”

  Juliette waved dismissively. “Whatever. Dad owed you anyway.”

  I decided not to think about that and asked another question before things could get awkward. “But why so many?”

  Juliette flashed a wicked smile. “Well, obviously you didn’t want to go by yourself, and I thought it would be rude to get you only two tickets and make you have to choose between your friends.”

  “You mean you were afraid I might not pick you,” I teased.

  Juliette didn’t deny it. “Hello! Brian Oliver!”

  I laughed again. “Okay, but why five? Did you have a specific guest list in mind?”

  “Well, obviously you, me, Vivian and Rob, and I thought…” Juliette hesitated, biting her lip nervously.

  “Who?” I asked. I honestly had no idea who else she could mean.

  “I thought you could invite Cinder.” Juliette blushed, and hurried with the rest of her explanation. “I mean, The Druid Prince is totally your guys’ thing. I thought it would be the perfect excuse for you two to finally meet.”

  I was shocked. Juliette wasn’t just trying to indulge one of my biggest passions—or hers—with this gift; she was doing so much more than that. She was trying to give me my best friend. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone had ever done for me. I was so overwhelmed by the gesture that I couldn’t speak.

  “What do you think?” Juliette asked nervously.

  “This gift is amazing, Juliette. Thank you so much for thinking about Cinder. That means a lot to me. I’d love to be able to go to this with him, but he’s out of town for the weekend at some work thing. He called to wish me happy birthday, and we could only speak for a couple minutes. He was so busy he said he wouldn’t have time to talk until Monday.”

  “Bummer.” Juliette’s face fell into a pout for only a second before she perked back up. “Whatever. We’ll get him when the movie comes out. I mean, there’s no way you guys aren’t going to watch it together.”

  My heart ached at the thought because I knew it was a hopeless cause. Cinder and I would never meet. I wouldn’t get to watch the movie with him, even though there was no one else in the world I’d rather see it with.

  I needed to change the subject before I started to cry. “Well, anyway, Cinder can’t come.” I looked at my other stepsister, who was studiously ignoring everyone by playing with her phone. “Why don’t you come with us, Ana?”

  Everyone at the table froze. Vivian, Rob, and Juliette gaped at me with incredulous, shocked faces. My dad and Jennifer were just as surprised, but they both watched Anastasia with held breaths and hopeful expressions. Anastasia was just as startled as everyone else. “Me?”

  I ignored her unfriendliness and shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

  The glare she hit me with was impressive, even for her. “I don’t need a pity invite. What makes you think I’d even want to go to some repulsive convention full of freaks with you and your friends, anyway?”

  The looks of disappointment on both my dad’s and Jennifer’s faces angered me more than Anastasia’s insult. I wanted to say something rude back but when I glanced around the table again at my new family, I didn’t have the heart to make matters worse.

  “It’s not a pity invite,” I said, forcing all the nonchalance I could manage into my voice. “Consider it more of a truce. A peace offering.”

  Anastasia’s eyes narrowed as she waited for me to explain.

  “Juliette and Rob are your friends too, and I know you like Brian Oliver. Come with us and have a good time. I’m not asking you to like me, and I don’t want you to come because I feel sorry for you. I’m inviting you as a way to apologize. I can’t help that I’ve intruded on your life and I can’t remove myself from it. What I can do is try to make up for it by giving you the chance to steal Brian Oliver from Kaylee Summers. As much as it pains me to say it, I think you’re prettier than she is. If anyone could manage it, you could.”

  Dad and Jennifer were still frozen in place, unable to believe what was happening, but Juliette, Vivian, and Rob all laughed.

  “She’s definitely aggressive enough,” Juliette agreed. She grinned at her sister and said, “You’re like a barracuda.”

  Anastasia scoffed, but I could tell she was trying not to smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’m grounded until Christmas.”

  “If you’d like to go with your sisters to the convention, I suppose I could unground you,” Dad said. “Assuming you can behave yourself.”

  Ana looked as if she was grinding her teeth as much as I was at being referred to as sisters, but neither of us corrected him. Ana narrowed her eyes and asked, “Ungrounded for just the day?”

  My dad and Jennifer shared a look. Dad shrugged and Jennifer nodded to Ana. “Ungrounded, as in early release. You can be done with your punishment as long as your behavior stays acceptable.”

  I got the feeling getting let off the hook wasn’t something that happened often in this family because both Juliette’s and Ana’s eyes popped open in shock. Ana recovered faster than Juliette and shrugged in my direction, feigning indifference. “Fine, whatever. I’ll go to your stupid thing.”

  The server came with our cake, and while everyone was distracted my dad reached over and squeezed my hand. “Thank you,” he mouthed.

  “Thank you for my gift,” I said in return. “I love it.”

  We all dug into our dessert—thankfully, there was no singing involved—and after a few minutes of comfortable silence, Rob turned to me. “So you’re not interested in winning Brian Oliver for yourself?” He was teasing, but there was true curiosity in his voice. “He’s already a fan of yours. All you’d have to do is tell him it was your blog he’s been quoting all day.”

  “Oh, no!” I laughed. “That is not happening. I already have one rich, arrogant, playboy twisting up my heart. I don’t need another one. He’s all yours, Anastasia—unless Juliette wants to fight you for him.”

  “Oh, I intend to,” Juliette said, making us all laugh again.

  “All right, all right, enough of this,” Vivian interrupted. “It’s my turn to give you your gift.”

  Vivian placed a large gift bag overflowing with colorful tissue paper in front of me.

  “You got me a present? You didn’t have to do tha
t.”

  “Oh, yes I did. Hurry and open it before I tell you what it is.”

  When I pulled the tissue paper away and saw folds of beautiful white lace, I gasped. “Did your dads make me a dress?”

  I pushed my chair back and stood up as I pulled the gown out of the bag and held it up to my body. It was beautiful! It was a floor-length gown made of chiffon and white lace. It was the most elegant dress I’d ever seen. More than that, though, I recognized it. “Wait. Is this…?”

  Vivian nodded. “I am not good with secrets; ask anyone. I almost spilled the beans about Sunday so many times, but Juliette would have killed me. When she told me what your dad was getting you, I went straight to my dads to help me with your costume. They were excited to help.”

  “This is amazing!” I hoped my eyes conveyed my gratitude, even though I felt like panicking. The dress was gorgeous, but it was sleeveless and backless. It would show so much of my scars. I knew I’d felt beautiful when I’d tried on that gown at her house, but I didn’t think I could show my scars off at the convention no matter how much I wanted to dress like my favorite character.

  “Look in the bag,” Vivian said, reading my thoughts.

  I gasped again when I pulled out a gorgeous white cloak that matched the dress, and a pair of long, formal white satin gloves. “I know the gloves aren’t an official part of Ellamara’s costume,” Vivian said, “but they match, and will cover your scars perfectly. And here!”

  Suddenly a hostess stood behind me, though I’d never seen anyone flag her down. The girl was holding a beautiful walking stick. It was about six feet tall, made of wood, and carved to look like intertwined tree branches. On the top, a large, pale-blue crystal-like orb was encased in the branches. It was an exact replica of Ellamara’s magic staff. I gingerly accepted the gift from the hostess, who wished me a happy birthday and then returned to her post. “It’s beautiful.”

  Vivian pointed to the bottom of the staff. “It’s also fully functional.”

  There was a thick rubber foot on the bottom, same as you’d find on crutches…or my cane. I gasped again and tested my weight against the staff. It would work perfectly.

  “As much as I love Candy Cane,” Vivian said—she’d named my cane Candy after giving it its facelift because I said it reminded me of the board game Candy Land, “this just goes so much better with the outfit.”

  I took a few steps to try it out and then whirled around to face a table full of smiling faces. “This is amazing, Vivian! Thank you! Thank your dads, too!”

  “Sunday you won’t just be Ellamara Rodriguez; you’ll be Ellamara—the beautiful and mysterious mystic druid priestess.”

  “There’s a costume competition,” Juliette added, “and we are so winning.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah. Vivian helped me with my costume, too. I’m going as the Princess Ratana.”

  “And I’ll be going as the evil Queen Nesona,” Vivian said. “My dress rocks. We’re going to look fabulous!”

  I squealed again. This was going to be so awesome. It was like a dream come true for a fantasy geek like me.

  “I’ll tell my dads about Ana when I get home tonight. They won’t have any trouble finishing another Princess Ratana outfit by Sunday.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard. There’s not really much to that costume.”

  Juliette stuck her tongue out at me. “I think it’s hot.” She’d heard my rant on the stupid warrior-girl’s lack of clothing before. “Twin Princess Ratanas will definitely catch the judges’ attention. Not to mention, Brian Oliver’s.”

  Rob laughed. “I get to hang out all day, just me and four amazingly hot girls dressed up like medieval princesses? Sweet.”

  Vivian looked at Rob with a mischievous glint in her eyes that made him sit up in his chair. “What?”

  She grinned at him with a sweet smile that was all too innocent. “There is a price for the honor of escorting us to the convention.”

  Rob frowned. “What price?”

  “Nothing too bad,” Juliette chirped. “Just a tunic.”

  “A what?”

  “And tights.” She giggled.

  Rob processed this and then his face paled. “Oh, no! No way!”

  All of us laughed, even Anastasia.

  “Yes, way,” Vivian said. “You didn’t think that the Mystic Priestess, the Fair Ladies Ratana, and Evil Mummy Dearest were going to show up without their champion druid prince, did you, dear Cinder?”

  “Um, yes, I did.”

  I sort of felt bad for him, but not enough to let him get out of wearing a costume. “If it helps, you get to have a sword,” I offered.

  “You can’t already have a costume for me,” he argued. “How would you know what size to make it?”

  Vivian laughed. “My dad has a gift for sizing people up. You met him the night you came over to watch movies. Not to mention there are so many helpful pictures of you on Facebook.”

  At Rob’s confused frown, Vivian smirked. “All those after-school practices you do without wearing a shirt have proved too tempting for the girls in our school.”

  Wow. I was really going to have to friend some of the girls in our school. Or maybe start watching some soccer practices.

  Vivian purred appreciatively, making Rob blush so fiercely I was sure his face would never be a normal shade again.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, offering him my hand under the table for support. He snatched it up as if it might make him invisible, and shot me a grateful smile.

  “Just think of the outfit as a uniform, and you’ll be fine,” Juliette teased.

  “The costume will fit,” Vivian promised, “but you should come over to my place early in the morning Sunday, just in case they need to make any quick alterations. Actually, all of you need to come over early because my dads asked their friends from the show to come over and do our hair and makeup.”

  “No way!” Juliette, Anastasia, and I all shouted together.

  Both my dad and Jennifer erupted with laughter. “Nothing like a makeover to get a girl excited, eh?” Dad teased, sending a sympathetic smile Rob’s way.

  Rob sighed and squeezed my hand again. “Fine. Because it’s Ella’s birthday, I will be her Prince Charming for the day.”

  “My Prince Cinder.” I leaned over and kissed Rob’s cheek. “You’re the best.”

  He gave me a rueful smile with a look that said I owed him, then turned back to Vivian. “I draw the line at makeup.”

  FantasyCon was everything I’d ever dreamed it would be, and my friends and I looked amazing for it. Vivian’s dads were so good, we didn’t look as if we’d stepped off the movie set—we looked as if we’d found a way to transcend worlds and come straight from the Realm itself.

  None of my friends were actual fans of fantasy like me. They weren’t familiar with the references, authors, and concept artists we met, like I was, and they didn’t almost faint when they got to meet Richard and Kahlan from Legend of the Seeker the way I did, but that didn’t matter. They got a kick out of all the other people in costume and took no small amount of pleasure in laughing at my geekiness. That was okay. It was still one of the most amazing days of my life.

  The Druid Prince panel discussion was an experience all its own. It made me so excited for the movie I didn’t think I’d be able to wait until its Christmas release. After it was over, the people with tickets for the meet-and-greet lined up to get their autographs from the panel members.

  Vivian, Juliette, and Anastasia had scarcely breathed since we walked into the room and saw Brian Oliver sitting just a few feet from us, and poor Rob was reduced to a drooling mess at the sight of Kaylee Summers. My starstruck friends indulged me, though, and waited patiently for me to meet The Druid Prince author, L.P. Morgan, first.

  He was paired at a table with the movie’s screenwriter, Academy Award winner Jason Cohen, and I almost died when I got caught up in a discussion with them and a few other diehard Cinder Chronicles fans about t
he adaptation process and how they were handling the sequels. I got to take my picture with them both, and they even let me record our discussion on my phone for my blog. It was seriously a dream come true! I was on cloud nine when I was finally pulled away from them and carted off to meet Brian Oliver and Kaylee Summers.

  “I can’t believe you got all fangirly on those two skeezy old guys when Brian Oliver is standing right over there,” Anastasia said as we waited in line for our turn to meet the guests of honor.

  Not even her attitude could kill my mood today. “Brian Oliver is hot, but L.P. Morgan is my hero. The man is a genius.” I hugged the hardback book I’d brought with me to have him sign. I wished it could have been my mother’s copy of the book from when she was a girl, but I would still treasure this new book. I squeezed it again, releasing a dreamy sigh. “I can’t believe I finally got to meet him.”

  Anastasia shook her head. “You are so weird.”

  Vivian threw her arm over my shoulder. “Yeah, but we like her anyway.”

  “So, Ella, are you going to thank Brian Oliver for your birthday present?” Juliette asked.

  “No.” I repeated myself when everyone looked at me as if I were crazy. “No. I don’t want him to know who I am.”

  “Why not?”

  Because he probably knows Cinder, and then he’d tell him he met me. “I just don’t want to, okay? Please don’t say anything.”

  “He probably knows Cinder,” Vivian said, voicing my exact thoughts—except she made it sound like that was a good thing. “You could get him to tell you Cinder’s name, and then we could find him on Facebook and see if he’s as hot as he sounds.”

  “I don’t need to confirm that. Cinder doesn’t want to meet me. Ever. I don’t want to know how good-looking he is.”

  Vivian and Juliette both frowned at me, but Rob came to my rescue. “You guys, leave her alone. Cinder’s a jerk anyway for not wanting to meet her. We should be helping her get over him, not encouraging her.”